Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk occurred from 5 to 16 July 1943 when Nazi Germany launched its "Operation Citadel" offensive against the Soviet Red Army salient at Kursk in western Russia. 900,000 German troops, 2,380 tanks and assault guns, 10,000 artillery pieces, and 2,500 aircraft (many of them drawn from other parts of the German reich) from Army Group Center and Army Group South launched a pincer attack on the Soviet Central Front's salient at Kursk; they faced 1,300,000 troops of the Central Front in the north and the Voronezh Front in the south. The Soviets employed 330,000 Soviet civilians to prepare dense minefields, an eight-line defensive network, and antitank trench systems, and the Soviets built 40 false airfields to distract the Germans.

On 4 July 1943, the Germans launched a probing attack on the Soviets, and the Fourth Panzer Army under Hermann Hoth moved along some muddy roads to seize the low hills near the German staging areas. At 10:30 PM, Soviet artillery bombarded the whole area, and massive air battles would take place on 5 July. By that night, the Red Army had beaten off three attacks by the Fourth Panzer Army. The Germans advanced slowly, but Army Group Center would make good progress from 5 to 7 July 1943. The army was halted at some villages and wooded country near Pervyye Ponyri, suffering 10,000 casualties. By 10 July, the German advance had again been halted, and Hitler began to shift his focus towards Sicily when Allied troops began invading the island that same day. The German II SS Panzer Corps attacked the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army at Prokhorovka on 12 July 1943, starting the largest tank battle in history, and 400 out of 850 Soviet tanks were destroyed in a bloody battle. However, the Germans could ill afford the 330 tank losses that they had suffered at Prokhorovka, and the German assault petered out.